We had a big-time streak breaker yesterday with Albert Pujols’ hitless game against the Mets. A hefty 19 percent of BTS users went with Prince Albert, only to find themselves back at square one following his not-so-regal 0-for-5 performance.

With so many fans forced to start from scratch over the weekend, we’re down to 178 fans tied for the top spot, at 15 games. That’s still a pretty hearty number, but we’re sure to see more seemingly safe picks come up empty in the coming days.

Congrats to those who’ve made it this far without getting nailed by the 0-for whammy.

I’m going with Ichiro tonight and its more based on numbers and the pitcher than it is the batter.
That being said Ichi numbers are nothing to scoff at…
Batting .365 career vs Bal, batting .329 vs Righties,
Batting .334 at home and .331 in night games. and he’s 4-11 vs Berg

Bergeson has given up 15 hits in 7.2 innings of work this season. ( 1.9 hits/ inning)

I hope the rising sun shines on “The Man From Japan” Ichirio today.
Tip of the Day – If you aren’t doing this start to do it for good information.
On the red bar that runs across the top of the home page, click in the word Schedule. When you get to the next screen you will see the games for today and pitcher names in Blue. Put your cursor over the name of the pitcher you want to view and a bubble appears with information about how that pitcher has done recently. The info is very good to read unlike “The Pick of the Day.”
I try not to pick players who had an 0-fer the day before. Figuring that that game may have been the beginning of a slump.
Today Pedrioa had an 0-fer today that followed his O-fer on Sunday. Many people today took Pedroia and Ordonez who both had 0-fers on Sunday.
I’m a Cub fan and would encourage you to stay away from them for now. Their hitting is inconsistent.

I’m atop the leaderboard and I have a strategy that’s seems to be a good one. I don’t look at the picks of the day, or any other suggested players, I do my own research. Ichiro is money in the bank tonight. Normally I don’t like taking home teams, for the fact that they may only get 8 innings to hit, but I couldn’t pass on him. I guarentee a hit tonight and tomorrow, after that it’s time to dig deep.

I thought I’d try to post, daily, the top 12 pick percentages for the Top 2500 (100 pages of BTS leaders). Though I missed the first game this AM, the following are the 12 most picked for the remainder of the day. Sometimes interesting when compared to what the BTS Results page shows; though that page is for the entire BTS, not just the Top 2500. Only counts the current streak holders.
Player, Times Picked, Percentage of 2500
Ichiro Suzuki, 860, 34.4%
Frankliin Gutierrez, 221, 8.84%
Albert Pujols, 214, 8.56%
David DeJesus, 121, 4.84%
Magglio Ordonez, 97, 3.88%
Scott Podsednik, 96, 3.84%
Carlos Gonzalez, 65, 2.6%
Matt Holliday, 50, 2.0%
Todd Helton, 45, 1.8%
Pablo Sandoval, 36, 1.44%
Miguel Cabrera, 35, 1.4%
Jacoby Ellsbury, 34, 1.36%

I can’t believe 4 of the top 5 picked Crawford against Lackey today…. That in my opinion took guts… but again I’m not at the top of the leader board….. I’m a bit scared about Ichiro tonight… going with Gutierrez… LOL everyone

“I try not to pick players who had an 0-fer the day before. Figuring that that game may have been the beginning of a slump.
Today Pedrioa had an 0-fer today that followed his O-fer on Sunday. Many people today took Pedroia and Ordonez who both had 0-fers on Sunday.”

That is funny because I tend to favor those hitters if they were hot right before hand.

I just view the 0 for as a “correction factor” against an insanely high batting average.

Cue Edgar Renteria last weekend hitting .68X going into the game and then going 0 for 5, despite the Giants scoring 8 runs.

Back-to-back 0 for’s normally signal a slump, unless you are Ichiro or if the team is facing some really good pitching.

That is why I would not necessarily dismiss Pedroia yet, since the Red Sox pretty much were totally shut down this weekend by the Rays.

If he goes 0 for against the new team though, I would take him out of the hot category though.

If I did my calculations correctly, 171 players dropped from the top 2500 either due to unlucky picks or “no selection”. Don’t know which because I failed to pull down the current selections before the 1st game was updated in BTS. Couple more days like yesterday and a streak of 5 or 6 will get you on the final few pages!

“I’m atop the leaderboard and I have a strategy that’s seems to be a good one. I don’t look at the picks of the day, or any other suggested players, I do my own research. Ichiro is money in the bank tonight. Normally I don’t like taking home teams, for the fact that they may only get 8 innings to hit, but I couldn’t pass on him. I guarentee a hit tonight and tomorrow, after that it’s time to dig deep.”

One thing to try and do there is to just take 3 hitters lower in the order for road teams to compensate.

So a guy hitting 5th on the road has nearly as many opportunities as a guy hitting 2nd at home.

“If I did my calculations correctly, 171 players dropped from the top 2500 either due to unlucky picks or “no selection”. Don’t know which because I failed to pull down the current selections before the 1st game was updated in BTS. Couple more days like yesterday and a streak of 5 or 6 will get you on the final few pages!”

Na, that will not happen until it is impossible to get to 57.

There is a steady stream of new players to fill in those snapped streaks every day.

Regading Ellsbury; not officially on DL yet so ppl can still pick him and obviously some did. That brings up a thought….

Some unlucky ways to have your streak end.
1. Rain shortened game, 2 at bats only
2. Strikeout, argue with ump, get thrown out in 1st inning.
3. Four at-bats, 3 walks and then strikeout or sac fly
4. Pinch hit in 9th against a great closer
5. Groundout in 1st, come up lame trying to leg it out

lavilperb – Answers to your questions:
1. Check out the weather report before making your selection each day.
2. This happened last year to Joey Votto and someone lost a 30+ streak.
3. How do you spell P U J O L S
4. Day game after a night game = Todd Helton
5. Manny Ramirez, Alphonso Soriano or as if anyone would be crazy enough to take him, Milton Bradley.
As you play longer you have a vast knowledge of “factiods” saved up in your brain – very scary!
Tuesday – Take a look ar Rafael Furcal of LAD, 4-7 lifetime v. Reds Homer Baily, bats leadoff, LAD have a big lineup which could mean 5 at bats, switch hitter, batting .327, free swinger.

hey for those of you who arent in the group and are posting here, come join us. under groups. look for “the bloggers” and if that doesnt come up, look up “bloggers” and join the rest of us who post and blog here

domo arigato – Ichirio
Vinny – Furcal, Jeter?(is he over his cold?), Ichirio, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, Franklin Gutierrez – I’m going to sleep on this one. My head is spinning here.
Joe Mauer looks good on paper but he is on my do not pick list as are Pujols and Votto.
btle – Who do you like?

Backrubs – Second guessing is a dangerous thing to do.
Word to the wise: I will usually put in a name the night before as a place holder until the next day. But today(Monday) I picked last night because of the 11am game. You never know what could happen to your computer or the MLB site. Remember tests in school Choose: A, B, C or D? In school your first choice was usually your best choice, same in BTS too.
Hasta Manana to all

I got my streak back up to 1 thanks to Cabrera and I agree with you about your first choice. It’s always right no matter how bad you feel about it Dragbunt. Have a good night Drag and see you tomorrow.

Well, after yesterday’s 1133 of the Top 2500 that were reset, today was relatively quiet. Just 432 were reset, with one extra inning game left to play tonight. In that game 42 Top 2500 positions remain in jeopardy:
Adrian Gonzalez 29 picks
Bengie Molina 10 picks
Chase Headley 2 picks
Eugenio Velez 1 pick

Dragbunt, I just saw your post about Jeter and Jeter is playing tonight. He is feeling better and he had a head cold. I’m sticking with Mauer but why he is on your do not pick list Drag? That is interesting.

“domo arigato – Ichirio
Vinny – Furcal, Jeter?(is he over his cold?), Ichirio, Dan Uggla, Hanley Ramirez, Franklin Gutierrez – I’m going to sleep on this one. My head is spinning here.
Joe Mauer looks good on paper but he is on my do not pick list as are Pujols and Votto.
btle – Who do you like?”

Just an observation, as of this morning, 5 May 2010, the most regular season games played by any team is 28…how is it possible that two individuals have a streak of 31 and one person has a streak of 30? Did “Beat The Streak” include spring training games? just curious…

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